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Archive for May, 2008

MEDIA & POLYGAMY: TELLING THE STORYA.G. TOWN HALL WILL EXPLORE MEDIA EXPOSURE AND MORE

Polygamy and the roles of the media and government will be explored ina Town Hall Meeting in St. George. This will be the fourth Town HallMeeting concerning polygamy for Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff andArizona Attorney General Terry Goddard.

“We started this discussion five years ago and this will be a good chance to reflect on where we have gone and where we need to go,” says Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff.

The Attorneys General of Utah and Arizona will be joined for a panel discussion by Arizona State Representative David Lujan, Centennial Park resident Don Timpson and Utah Safety Net Coordinator Paul Murphy. The public will be invited to attend and participate.

“Previous Town Halls have all been productive, and this year’s will bean important opportunity to strengthen relations between law enforcement and the Colorado City/Hildale community,” says Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard.

The Town Hall Meeting will follow a half-day training session for members of polygamous communities, journalists, law enforcement officers and social service providers working with plural families. The training session has two goals:

* Help journalists seek truth and report it; minimize harm; act independently; and be held accountable.

* Help polygamists and people working with polygamists provide information in a way that is accurate, fair and minimizes harm,especially to children.

Both events are being sponsored by the Utah-Arizona Safety Net Committee, which brings together government agencies, non-profit organizations and interested individuals together to “open up communication, break down barriers and coordinate efforts to give people associated with the practice of polygamy equal access to justice, safety and services.”

The following public forum letter was printed in the Salt Lake Tribune on April 30, 2008.

While emotionally appealing, the plea that the Texas FLDS children be returned to their parents fails to answer the question, “What then?” The Short Creek “return policy” has resulted in: the “lost boys,” welfare fraud amounting to billions of dollars, 15-year-old girls exercising “free will” to marry 50-year-old men (please!), and women “reassigned” to new husbands outside the bounds of secular law. Which action presents the greater evil?

Nature provides a near 50/50 ratio of female to male, yet in the Texas compound there are four women to every man. Someone is being short-changed. Being expelled from the community, the “lost boys” find themselves unprepared to fend in normal society. These expulsions warrant jail time for the responsible authority and for the parents. How many men can afford to clothe, feed, house and educate 30 children? Polygamy is not only against the law, but by depending upon government welfare for its survival, it crosses the boundary of church and state. Yes, the Texas incident seems harsh, but something harsh is needed, similarly in Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz. Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff should do more than close one eye. F.T. Gardiner Provo

According to F.T. Gardiner, FLDS welfare fraud amouts to “billions of dollors.” Billions? That is a figure I find extremely hard to believe.